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Speak Out: Do you feel that your campaign contributions matter?

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Gov. Bobby Jindal thanks supporters during his re-election victory party at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge on Saturday, October 22, 2011. (Photo by Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

In the extensive "Louisiana Purchased" series, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8, are uncovering the dynamics of campaign
financing and the top political contributors to state and local campaigns in
Louisiana.

What they discovered in their four-month investigation is
that the top 400 contributors to state and local political campaigns from
2008-12 made up only .3 percent of all political campaign contributors. However,
the donations from those 400 individuals made up nearly a third of the almost
$204 million poured into these campaigns.

That means that the
nearly 99.7 percent of all contributors to Louisiana's political campaigns from
2008-2012 only gave two-thirds of all the donations received.

The amounts the "Top 400" gave ranged from $52,000 to $1.3
million, and many of them like Alexandria construction magnate Bryan
Bossier have been appointed to serve on various boards by the candidates they
financially supported.

As the report states, Bossier, his
firms and his family donated 7 percent of all the cash Gov. Bobby Jindal raised
in 2012. Since then one of Bossier's companies has been award $49 million in
contracts in the last year and he's been appointed by Jindal for seats in the
Louisiana Highway Safety Commission in 2010 and the Board of Commerce and
Industry in 2008.